SEMINAR: Towards Intelligent Electromagnetic Environments: Solvers, Sensing, and Surfaces
Guest: Dr. Mert Kalfa
Title: Towards Intelligent Electromagnetic Environments: Solvers, Sensing, and Surfaces.
Date / Time: January 30, 2026 11:30
Location: FENS G035 (Hybrid)
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Abstract:The emergence of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, commercially viable large-scale active antenna arrays, and new communications paradigms marks a shift from passive to programmable electromagnetic (EM) environments in the post-5G era. Despite their potential, these technologies remain limited by the absence of fast and accurate full-wave solvers, efficient sparse/semantic sensing strategies, and task-driven design methodologies. In this talk, I will present research trajectory and vision for enabling Intelligent Electromagnetic Environments through three thrusts: (1) AI-augmented full-wave solvers for large-scale finite arrays and metasurfaces, (2) compressive and semantic signal processing for efficient sensing and communications, and (3) goal-oriented optimization of intelligent metasurfaces for task-driven performance. I will highlight relevant contributions ranging from novel computational EM methods to semantic communication frameworks and field-proven phased array systems/methodologies.
Bio:Mert Kalfa received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey, in 2010, 2013, and 2020, respectively. He was a post-doctoral visiting research associate at Bilkent University, while acting as the director of the Huawei Ankara R&D Center in 2020-2023. He is currently the Electronics Design Manager at Meteksan Savunma, focusing on phased array system design and personally contributing to all aspects of hardware implementation from digital design to antennas. He has also been teaching the Antenna Engineering and Engineering Mathematics II courses in Bilkent University since Fall 2024. His current research interests focus on intelligent electromagnetic environments, with a focus on computational electromagnetics, sparse signal processing, semantic signal processing, and active arrays. Dr. Kalfa is a recipient of the Leopold B. Felsen Excellence in Electromagnetics award and the IEEE Turkey Ph.D. Dissertation award.